Several of you will remember I started this around thanksgiving. I tried to buy as little as possible & have reused a ton of stuff from around the house. Total I have about $60 in it & it will hold 80 - 90 eggs depending on how I set them.
For starters I build this box
I had the lumber (cedar 1x3) in the garage left over from a fence project. Cost $0
I did have to buy the foil backed insulated foam board. It was $10 for a 4x8 sheet. I only used half - so I'm claiming $5 toward this project.
You can see inside the lid one of the light sockets. I have two - these were from my brooder lights! I just removed the metal bell & slipped them through holes in the back of the box. Cost $0
Here is a better picture of that.
I had the henges too - but had to buy latches & plexiglass. Total for both was $12
From there I built a cool manual turner. This way I don't have to open the box to turn it.
I had a lot of advice to cut this out to improve airflow to the eggs. I did this today. Here is what it looks like now.
Total cost $0
So that gave me the basic box & turner with heat source. I ordered a hygrometer from eBay for $0.99 but had pay $6 for shipping & had to wait 6 weeks for it to ship from china. Ha!
After much discussion with people on this forum I decided to add a thermostat to the mix. Otherwise I would have had a hard time maintaining the temps - expecially since I won't be babysitting this all day for 3 weeks.
You can see it in the middle of the last picture.
here is how I wired it
Works perfectly - though it was costly!
Thermostat $12
Relay $6
Connector $2
So far the total is right around $44
I forgot to mention the computer fan I had in a busted computer - that was in the wire diagram. It was also free.
I have had this up & running for a while & have struggled with humidity - See my other post asking q's about it. So with advice from many experts here I did the following.
I found a huge automotive sponge at Menards on clearance for $0.78 - cut it in half & put each half in a tray.
I purchased 2 copper 1/2 pipe elbows - they are about 4 inches on each side of the elbo - I bought these because @ $3.99 each that was much cheaper than the $15 for the roll of plastic tubing they had. I then grabbed a couple clamps. Total $11
I drilled holes in the bator & slid the tubes in so they empty into each of the two water trays. This way - I can just pour water into the tube from the outside & keep the water trays full.
The holes in this picture are vents - also on advice from here - apparently eggs need air?? Who whould have guessed!
Here is a video of me adding water - very simple!
At the moment it is running from 99.3 to 101.5 on the temps & I am waiting for the humidity to come up - though advice from many friends on here say 40% is just fine - I'd still like to verify I can raise it for the final week.
I'm using plastic (not foam) egg cartons with the bottoms cut out as holders for the eggs. This should allow plenty of air & still hold them pretty tight.
The eggs ship tomorrow! so hopefully by this next weekend we will be in full blown incubation!
For starters I build this box
I had the lumber (cedar 1x3) in the garage left over from a fence project. Cost $0
I did have to buy the foil backed insulated foam board. It was $10 for a 4x8 sheet. I only used half - so I'm claiming $5 toward this project.
You can see inside the lid one of the light sockets. I have two - these were from my brooder lights! I just removed the metal bell & slipped them through holes in the back of the box. Cost $0
Here is a better picture of that.
I had the henges too - but had to buy latches & plexiglass. Total for both was $12
From there I built a cool manual turner. This way I don't have to open the box to turn it.
I had a lot of advice to cut this out to improve airflow to the eggs. I did this today. Here is what it looks like now.
Total cost $0
So that gave me the basic box & turner with heat source. I ordered a hygrometer from eBay for $0.99 but had pay $6 for shipping & had to wait 6 weeks for it to ship from china. Ha!
After much discussion with people on this forum I decided to add a thermostat to the mix. Otherwise I would have had a hard time maintaining the temps - expecially since I won't be babysitting this all day for 3 weeks.
You can see it in the middle of the last picture.
here is how I wired it
Works perfectly - though it was costly!
Thermostat $12
Relay $6
Connector $2
So far the total is right around $44
I forgot to mention the computer fan I had in a busted computer - that was in the wire diagram. It was also free.
I have had this up & running for a while & have struggled with humidity - See my other post asking q's about it. So with advice from many experts here I did the following.
I found a huge automotive sponge at Menards on clearance for $0.78 - cut it in half & put each half in a tray.
I purchased 2 copper 1/2 pipe elbows - they are about 4 inches on each side of the elbo - I bought these because @ $3.99 each that was much cheaper than the $15 for the roll of plastic tubing they had. I then grabbed a couple clamps. Total $11
I drilled holes in the bator & slid the tubes in so they empty into each of the two water trays. This way - I can just pour water into the tube from the outside & keep the water trays full.
The holes in this picture are vents - also on advice from here - apparently eggs need air?? Who whould have guessed!
Here is a video of me adding water - very simple!
At the moment it is running from 99.3 to 101.5 on the temps & I am waiting for the humidity to come up - though advice from many friends on here say 40% is just fine - I'd still like to verify I can raise it for the final week.
I'm using plastic (not foam) egg cartons with the bottoms cut out as holders for the eggs. This should allow plenty of air & still hold them pretty tight.
The eggs ship tomorrow! so hopefully by this next weekend we will be in full blown incubation!
